Easy access child car seat

ABSTRACT

A child car seat has a central seating portion including base cushion and a vertically extending back support, and two side doors capable of opening. The two side doors are rotatably connected to the back support and may lock into the base cushion when in the closed position. The two side doors allow for the safe, comfortable and convenient removal of a child from the child car seat.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a children's car seat thatprovides multi-directional access to a child in the seat.

BACKGROUND

Traditional child car seats contain side rails to protect and retain thechild within the child car seat. With these traditional child car seats,in order to remove the child from, or place the child in, the car seat,one must access the car seat from the front of the child's car seat.This requires a parent/guardian to uncomfortably and dangerously leanover the car seat and remove the child from, or place the child in, thecar seat. This motion of placing the child in, or removing the childfrom, the car seat creates an awkward position for the parent/guardian.It results in being severely inconvenient and uncomfortable for both theparent/guardian and the child. Furthermore, by having a parent/guardianin an uncomfortable, inconvenient, and awkward position, a higher chanceof the parent/guardian harming the child is present. Furthermore, in theevent of an emergency, where the child needs to be quickly removed fromthe vehicle, removal of a child from a traditional child car seat canprove to be difficult for parents/guardians or emergency personnel.

Therefore, the need of a more efficient car seat for the removal andplacement of a child within the car seat is needed.

SUMMARY

It is to be understood that both the following summary and the detaileddescription are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to providefurther explanation of the invention as claimed. Neither the summary northe description that follows is intended to define or limit the scope ofthe invention to the particular features mentioned in the summary or inthe description. Rather, the scope of the invention is defined by theappended claims.

In certain embodiments, the disclosed embodiments may include one ormore of the features described herein.

In various embodiments, a new apparatus provides for convenient accessto a child within a car seat, comfortable access to a child within a carseat, and quick access to, and removal of, a child in a car seat.

A new apparatus in various embodiments has a plurality of elements,including two side doors and a base cushion. The base cushion may be acushion that supports a user when the user is in a sitting position. Thebase cushion may have a cushioned interior to promote comfort for theuser of the car seat. The base cushion may also contain a padded pillowfor extra support and comfort. Furthermore, a tray may be located at thebottom of the base cushion and may be used for storage.

A back support may extend vertically from the rear of the base cushion.The back support provides stability and structure to the back of a userof the child car seat. Extending from the top of the back support may beextra padding to support a user's head and neck. Additionally, the backsupport may contain an aperture capable of receiving a vehicle seat beltto secure the child car seat to the vehicle.

The two side doors may be rotatably connected to the back support. Thetwo side doors may rotate independently from one other. In the closedposition, the two side doors may be flush with the base cushion. The twoside doors may contain a latch mechanism that enables the two side doorsto lock onto or into the base cushion. Furthermore, the two side doorsmay contain a cup holder extending from at least one of the two sidedoors. The two side doors may also contain a cup holder molded into atleast one of the two side doors. Moreover, the two side doors maycontain openings capable of receiving protuberances for fasteningattachable devices, such as a tray or a cup holder.

The child car seat may also contain a safety belt, or restraint belt,for securing the child within the child car seat.

These and further and other objects and features of the invention areapparent in the disclosure, which includes the above and ongoing writtenspecification, with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a partof the specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments and, togetherwith the description, further serve to enable a person skilled in thepertinent art to make and use these embodiments and others that will beapparent to those skilled in the art. The invention will be moreparticularly described in conjunction with the following drawingswherein:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of one embodiment of a child car seatwith opening side doors.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A new easy access child car seat will now be disclosed in terms ofvarious exemplary embodiments. This specification discloses one or moreembodiments that incorporate features of the invention. Theembodiment(s) described, and references in the specification to “oneembodiment”, “an embodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicatethat the embodiment(s) described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic. Such phrases are not necessarily referringto the same embodiment. When a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, personsskilled in the art may affect such feature, structure, or characteristicin connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitlydescribed.

In the several figures, like reference numerals may be used for likeelements having like functions even in different drawings. Theembodiments described, and their detailed construction and elements, aremerely provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of theinvention. Thus, it is apparent that the present invention can becarried out in a variety of ways, and does not require any of thespecific features described herein. Also, well-known functions orconstructions are not described in detail since they would obscure theinvention with unnecessary detail.

The description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is mademerely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of theinvention, since the scope of the invention is best defined by theappended claims.

An embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 1is a perspective view of a child car seat 13 with openable two sidedoors 3. The child car seat 13 contains a central seating portionincluding a base cushion 1 and a vertically extending back support 2.The back support 2 extends from the rear of the base cushion 1.Rotatably connected to the back support 2 are two side doors 3. One ofeach of the two side doors 3 is rotatably connected to each side of theback support 2. The two side doors 3 are rotatably connected to the backsupport 2 in a configuration that, when in the closed position, the twoside doors 3 are positioned flush against the side of the base cushion1.

Located on the sides of the base cushion 1 are cavities 6. Thesecavities 6 are capable of receiving protrusions 5 located on the side ofthe two side doors 3. When the protrusions 5 are inserted into thecavities 6, the locking mechanism 4 may be used to lock the two sidedoors 3 into place. The base cushion 1 additionally houses a tray 7,which can be used as storage in the front of the base cushion 1.Furthermore, extending from the base cushion 1 to the back support 2 aretwo restraint belts 11. These restraint belts 11 contain an interlockingsystem 12 that secures a user within the child car seat 13. Back support2 contains an aperture 9, which is configured to receive the seat beltof a vehicle and used to secure the child car seat 13 to the vehicle.Moreover, an extra padding pillow 8 extends from the top of the backsupport 2 to provide comfort and support to a users head. Additionally,a cup holder 10 is molded in at least one of the two side doors 3.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the cup holder 10 mayextend from the two side doors 3 rather than be molded within the twoside doors. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the tray7 may extend from the two side doors. The extension of the tray 7 andthe cup holder 10 from the two side doors 3 may be made possible byopenings placed in the two side doors 3 that are configured to receiveprotuberances from the tray 7 and the cup holder 10. In an additionalembodiment of the present invention, the two side doors 3 may berotatably connected to the base cushion 1 and lock into the back support2. In that embodiment, the side doors have less of a tendency to swingclosed, for example when a vehicle containing the car seat is parked ona slope, however the side door when fully opened in this embodiment hasa greater tendency to interfere with insertion or extraction of a carseat user.

The invention is not limited to the particular embodiments illustratedin the drawings and described above in detail. Those skilled in the artwill recognize that other arrangements could be devised, for example,using a height locking mechanism that utilizes a spring loaded pressuresystem to position the handrails into place, and using various knownrestraint and seatbelt/latch securing structures and configurations, aswell as various means for locking the side doors and various car seataccessories. The invention encompasses every possible combination of thevarious features of each embodiment disclosed. While the invention hasbeen described with reference to specific illustrative embodiments,modifications and variations of the invention may be constructed withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in thefollowing claims.

1. An apparatus for a child car seat, comprising: a central seatingportion; and one or more side doors rotatably connected to said centralseating portion; wherein the side doors are configured to lock to thecentral seating portion to secure the side doors and prevent rotation.2. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein the central seatingportion comprises a base cushion and a back support vertically extendingfrom the base cushion.
 3. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, furthercomprising at least one restraint belt.
 4. The apparatus set forth inclaim 1, further comprising two restraint belts and an interlockingsystem for securing the two restraint belts together.
 5. The apparatusset forth in claim 1, wherein the central seating portion furthercomprises an aperture configured to receive a seat belt of a vehicle forholding the child car seat in place.
 6. The apparatus set forth in claim1, wherein the side doors comprise a latch mechanism for locking intothe central seating portion.
 7. The apparatus set forth in claim 1,further comprising at least one cavity in the central seating portionand at least one protrusion on the side doors, wherein the at least onecavity is configured to receive the at least one protrusion.
 8. Theapparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein the side doors further compriseat least one opening capable of receiving at least one protuberance froman attachable device.
 9. The apparatus set forth in claim 8, furthercomprising a cup holder comprising at least one protuberance, whereinthe at least one protuberance is capable of being inserted into the atleast one opening of the side doors.
 10. The apparatus set forth inclaim 1, further comprising a cup holder extending from one of the sidedoors.
 11. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, further comprising a cupholder molded into one of the side doors.
 12. The apparatus set forth inclaim 1, further comprising a built in tray extending from at least oneof the side doors.
 13. The apparatus set forth in claim 8, furthercomprising a removable tray, wherein the removable tray comprising atleast one protuberance, wherein the at least one protuberance is capableof being inserted into the at least one opening of the side doors. 14.The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein the central seating portionfurther comprises a storage container.
 15. The apparatus set forth inclaim 1, wherein the central seating portion further comprises an extrapadding pillow configured to support the head of a user.
 16. Theapparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein the central seating portionfurther comprises a cushioned interior.
 17. The apparatus set forth inclaim 1, wherein the central seating portion further comprises a paddedpillow.
 18. The apparatus set forth in claim 1, wherein the one or moreside doors comprise two side doors.